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Steelworkers show support

Eighty-four striking workers at Brantford's Engineering Coated Products received support from a busload of Sudbury Steelworkers and Nickel Belt New Democrat MPP France Gelinas on the two-year anniversary of their strike Monday.

The workers, members of USW Local 1-500, marked the 24-month mark in their labour dispute against the giant American company.

Back in Sudbury on Tuesday, Gelinas said the Brantford workers could be the poster child for the need for legislation banning the hiring of replacement workers by Ontario employers.

Engineering Coated Products has been operating throughout the strike with replacement workers, whom Gelinas said are easy to hire in the economically depressed Brantford area.

Three years before the strike began, their old company was purchased by the U.S. conglomerate, said Gelinas and it tried to impose a 25% cut in wages, a defined contribution pension and limits on sick benefits on Local 1-500 members.

The company demanded the same concessions of its workers in British Columbia, but it failed to get them because B.C. does not allow hiring replacement workers, said Gelinas.

Whenever Ontario strikers try to resume negotiations, they are told by the company that it won't negotiate until workers accept concessions, said Gelinas.

Dozens of Sudbury Steelworkers, members of USW Local 6500, travelled to Brantford for the anniversary rally. About 2,800 of them just returned to work after an almost year-long strike here and in Port Colborne against Vale.

Throughout the strike, Steelworkers and Gelinas called for Ontario to ban the use of replacement workers. Vale resumed partial production during the strike with some outside workers.